On Friday morning Oct. 30, the Teen Republicans at Ponte Vedra High School hosted local attorney Malcolm Anthony to their inaugural meeting. Anthony spoke to the group about single reason the United States was, is, and always will be the greatest nation the earth has ever seen.
Using phrases from the Declaration of Independence he told the students that this singular reason is that our country was founded upon a unique idea in history - that our rights descend from an Almighty Creator.
They are unalienable and the true reason governments should be instituted among men is to secure these rights.
He then gave a history lesson of the eastern cultures with kings, sun gods, emperors and politburo leaders who grant rights to the people of their nations and so can just as easily take them away.
He described how the Greek idea of democracy stood against the East, the Persians led by King Xerxes, at the battle of Salamis in 480 B. C. leaving a heritage of democratic ideals for Europe to advance and flourish. He then traced the history of feudal Europe where, during the Middle Ages the people voluntarily ceded their rights to the feudal lords in exchange for their protection from raiding Norsemen and other invaders.
He contrasted these with the unique American experience; the frontiersmen, the pioneers, the people seeking a better life in the wilderness risked everything; they traded their freedom for nothing.
Their security was always at risk but they would not trade it for security and this led to the American Revolution. They valued freedom more than the security of the home country rule. Mr. Anthony then explained how in 1789, the nation’s government was constituted upon a concept to inhibit arrogation of power.
A tripartite system to disperse powers so that no one branch of government would attain ascendancy over the others, securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
